This disclosure relates generally to firearms and, more particularly, to magazine safety units for a self-loading firearm.
All of the positional statements used in this document assume a firearm that is located in its normal firing position. The barrel is horizontally oriented, pointing away from the shooter, and the magazine extends more or less obliquely to the barrel from bottom to top.
The typical magazine has two lateral surfaces positioned opposite to one another which end, at the top and rear, in magazine lip units. In front of the magazine lip units, the magazine is sloped downwardly, so that cartridges can thereby be slid to the front between the magazine lip units without being impeded.
The forward surface of the magazine is often angled, but is not completely applied to the contour of the firearm, however, so that it is not, to the extent possible, abraded. As a general rule, a certain clearance is, thus, present between the bullet and the wall of the magazine. This is particularly true for magazines that provide staggered storage of cartridges.
Magazine safety devices have been known for a long time and have the primary task of making shooting impossible if the magazine has been removed from the weapon. Many varied constructions of such devices are known. For example, in pistols such as the SandW Mod. 559, the lock can be moved back and the hammer can be cocked even if the magazine has been removed, but not by means of the trigger. A magazine safety unit is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,648.
Modern pistols have a plastic pistol grip. The pistol stock is integrally formed with the pistol grip and cannot be removed. By virtue of this approach, the internal parts of the weapon are not accessible, but no parts can be mounted if the pistol stock has been removed.
The applicant has recently proposed a magazine safety unit which is attached backwardly to the lower end of the shaft of the magazine and has a finger unit which is biased by a spring in the shaft of the magazine. If this finger unit is pressed back by the magazine, then the mechanism of the weapon remains unaffected. If the magazine is removed, however, then a part cooperating with a pin impedes a spring bar around which the striking spring is placed when the hammer is relaxed. This prevents movement of this spring bar thereby clamping the hammer. It also prevents the loading movement, prevents disassembly of the weapon, and prevents shooting of the weapon.
The fact that the magazine must be practically entirely removed in order to activate the magazine safety unit is disadvantageous, however. It is thus not possible for the shooter to be made aware, by way of the magazine safety unit, of the fact that the magazine has not been completely inserted and engaged.
On the other hand, a magazine safety unit with a swiveling lever, which is swivelable around the axis of the trigger and engages with the bar from the front, has already been presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,768. This swiveling lever is stressed by pulling of the trigger and can be bent upwardly if the trigger has been forcefully activated with the magazine removed.
In certain hammer lock constructions, the hammer is also blocked with the bar. Then, with the hammer blocked, the sliding support of the pistol cannot be drawn back far enough to draw a cartridge out of the cartridge storage unit. If the magazine is removed with the pistol loaded, it is not possible to unload the weapon.
It is usual in military and civil guard units, such as during the changing of the guard, for example, to first remove the magazine and to then hand the unloaded weapon and the full magazine over to the incoming guard shift. This is not possible in the case of weapons of the type stated above, because the weapon cannot be reloaded after the removal of the magazine. It is not possible to unload the reloaded weapon without the magazine. The removed magazine could be emptied, the empty magazine could then be inserted into the weapon, and this could subsequently be unloaded. During years of use, however, guard personnel have tended to somewhat neglect safety out of shear laziness.